Stucco is the most common exterior finish in the
Southwest. Builders here use stucco to finish almost
any style of residence: frame, adobe, masonry, and
even straw bale homes.
Traditional "three-coat" stucco, as the name
implies, consists of three separate layers of cement plaster
materials: a trowel-applied "scratch coat," which
receives a grooved surface with a special scratching
tool; a sand-finished "brown coat," which keys into
the scratch coat; and a finish, or "color," coat, which
is usually cementitious. During the 15 years that I've
been building custom homes in Santa Fe, N.M.,
I've used three-coat stucco on most of my company's
projects.
Two Coats in One
In the past seven or eight years, however,